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marlowe55

Whole House Dehumidifier Worth the Money?

Peter Cohn
13 years ago

I've just moved into a large 1892 Victorian with a large, partially finished basement. The basement definitely has big water problems -- after heavy rains, water pools along one side of the house. Some areas at the back of the basement are always wet (the basement is really huge, and has a number of separated, musty dungeon-like areas.) I know I have a big job ahead of me to get the place dry. As a first step, I'm thinking about a dehumidifier.

In my previous house, I ran a Kenmore with a supplementary pump, and thought that worked well. In this instance, would it really be worth it to spend $1500-$2000 for a whole house unit, like a Santa Fe, or to hire a basement waterproofing contractor to install a big unit (such as the Basement Systems relabeled Santa Fe). I suppose it might even be a good idea to run ventilation ducts to some of the wettest parts of the basement.

But I can't find anything on the web that really analyzes the pros and cons here. One waterproofing contractor I spoke to argued that the better energy efficiency and higher dehumidification capacity of a big system make it a worthwhile investment.

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